Mosaicism

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This topic is discussed in the following articles:

chromosomal disorders

...or in the early development of the embryo. In the latter case, a mixture of cells, some normal (euploid) and some containing abnormal chromosome complements, may occur, a condition known as mosaicism. In either case, abnormalities of development occur because of the unusual genetic signals transmitted by the chromosomes. Some one of these chromosome imbalances occurs in 0.5 percent of...

genetic disease

...seen in spontaneously aborted fetuses, demonstrating that almost all 45,X conceptions are lost to miscarriage. Indeed, the majority of liveborn females with Turner syndrome are diagnosed as mosaics, meaning that some proportion of their cells are 45,X while the rest are either 46,XX or 46,XY. The degree of clinical severity generally correlates inversely with the degree of mosaicism, so...

hermaphroditism

...and testicular tissue. The ovarian and testicular tissue may be separate, or the two may be combined in what is called an ovotestis. Affected individuals have sex chromosomes showing male-female mosaicism (where one individual possesses both the male XY and female XX chromosome pairs). Most often, but not always, the chromosome complement is 46,XX, and in every such individual there also...

Walsh

In 1980 in Cleveland, Walsh was fatally shot in the cross fire of an attempted robbery. The subsequent autopsy revealed that Walsh had a chromosomal disorder known as mosaicism that left her with sexually ambiguous genitalia. Despite the gender confusion caused by the disorder, Walsh had lived her entire life as a woman.

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